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Natacha Atlas (electronic)

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Raised in Belgium and England by a British Muslim mother and a Moroccan/Egyptian/Palestinian father, Natacha Atlas is a true international citizen, one who’s fluent in Arabic, French, Spanish, Serbian and English. Her music career started with gigs as a bellydancer and singer in a salsa band before she joined seminal world beat trance/dance band Transglobal Underground.

Her last album, Ana Hina, focused on traditional Arabic songs with a Turkish band; the title for her latest, Mounqaliba, translates as “state of reversal.”

“The state of reversal I speak of is the current state of the world and the current malady of our values, which should be addressed,” said Atlas in an e-mail interview from France, where she was touring before coming to the West Coast.

She was speaking more to the current financial breakdown and the banking crisis — “the bold efforts the present banks have made to control governments are but premonitions of the fate that awaits the people of the world, she predicts” — and not about shifts in modern music, where stylistic borders and boundaries have been breaking down for some time.

“I don’t think you can look at music in that broad of a spectrum,” she said. “There are some artists that are a world apart from any direct influences from any current trends, but that being said, there are still plenty of artists that conform and are programmed to do so. I am happy to let go of borders and boundaries, but I am less interested in music becoming homogenized, becoming corporate and a money machine through making everything generic to pacify the masses.”

Her music is full of fusion. “For example, listen carefully to the arrangements of ‘Maakan’ on my current album,” she said. “[It] is an interplay between Arabic traditional melodies and scales and a modern interpretation of western classical baroque. [It] clearly demonstrates the marriage between the two. Another example is ‘Riverman’ [a Nick Drake song], which takes modern English folk music and marries it with rhythms and other subtle Arabic textures.”

What shall we expect when she plays the Arcata Theatre Lounge on Friday? “We will be showcasing seven or eight songs from Mounqaliba with my wonderful band: Samy on violin, Andy on bass, George on percussion, Alcyona on piano and Louai on ney. We are fortunate to be able to have a local cellist perform with us as well. Looking forward to seeing you all!”

-Bob Doran

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